Mary O'Grady

Mary Anastasia O'Grady — also published as Mary O'Grady — is an editor of the Wall Street Journal and member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board since 2005. She writes predominantly on Latin America and is a co-editor of the Index of Economic Freedom. She is a recipient of the Bastiat Prize.

Education

O'Grady earned a bachelor's degree in English from Assumption College and later received an M.B.A. from Pace University in financial management.

Career

Before her work for The Wall Street Journal, she was an options strategist for Advest, Thomson McKinnon Securities then Merrill Lynch, where she worked for 10 years.

In August 1995, O'Grady joined The Wall Street Journal and later became a senior editorial page writer for the journal in December 1999. In November 2005, she was appointed as a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

She is also editor of "The Americas," a weekly column that appears every Monday and deals with politics, economics and business in Latin America and Canada while also serving as a member of the board of directors at Liberty Fund.

Criticism

O'Grady has received criticism for alleged inaccuracies in articles written for the Wall Street Journal, as an alleged claim that Fidel Castro developed viruses to share with Islamic fundamentalists; or that Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega were providing refuge to Islamic terrorists.

She has been characterized by her strong position against progressive governments, which has elicited responses from people such as former US President Jimmy Carter, who wrote an article in response to O'Grady, or Phillip Cryan who criticized O'Grady's "paranoic allegations". She has been criticized for her support, through her columns, of the controversial privatization process in El Salvador.

She is well known for her positions regarding classical liberalism, her frontal rejection of leftist governments in America and for being in favor of the legalization of drug trafficking.

In an article published on the Wall Street Journal, she linked Iran with the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador citing "secret intelligence sources."The Mexican president publicly denied the contents of the article in a press conference. Characterizing the article as lies and fabrications by the columnist.

Awards

• Inter American Press Association's David Gleaner Award (1997)
• International Policy Network's Bastiat Prize (2005)
• Association of Private Enterprise Education's Thomas Jefferson Award (2009)
• The Fund for American Studies' Walter Judd Freedom Award (2012)

Honorary degrees

O'Grady was awarded the following honorary degrees:

• Francisco Marroquin University, honorary doctorate (2015)